Monument record MDO23306 - Ditch, behind Cornmarket, Wimborne Minster

A large ditch running east-west between Wimborne Minster and the Cornmarket. The was filled with material containing pottery of seventeenth-century date.

The end of a large ditch aligned roughly east-west with a spread bank on its southern side. The excavators noted that the ditch had been backfilled during the seventeenth century, and could not be taken as evidence of an early ecclesiastical circuit. (1) The ditch was 1.2m deep and 2.2m wide, and the remains of a gravel bank survived along its southern edge. There was a sandstone revetment between the bank and the ditch. The ditch had been recut and contained pottery up to seventeenth century in date. An eighteenth-century well shaft had been cut through this filling. The excavators felt that, though the ditch had been cleaned out in the seventeenth century, its position and size suggested a substantial boundary of a much earlier date. Even so, there was not sufficient evidence for them to conclude that this was the remains of the boundary of the ecclesiastical circuit postulated in this area. (2)(3)

Record last edited

Jan 13 2010 12:24PM